Chapter 018
“Luke! Luke Ailac!”
The military doctor, Luke, who accompanied the lord every time he went to battle, rushed out of the tent at the sound of his name being called.
“Your Excellency!”
The young lord was running toward his tent.
In the lord’s arms was a woman with bright blonde hair and a slender frame. It was the duchess who had been exchanged as a hostage.
Seeing the woman’s clothes drenched in blood, Luke turned pale.
Although he had prepared for the worst after hearing the enemy prince mention whipping, the amount of blood loss was too severe.
Luke hurriedly walked through the tent door.
“Your Excellency, come this way.”
The lord entered the tent following his lead.
As the lord laid the woman on the prepared bed, Luke washed her wounds with herbal water that he had boiled and cooled in advance. Blood flowed continuously from the long, deep gash on her white back.
After finishing the disinfection, Luke began to stitch the wound. Despite the pain that must have been severe due to the urgent treatment, the woman did not move.
From a purely medical perspective, Luke was grateful that the duchess still had a pulse. It wouldn’t have been surprising if she had stopped breathing.
After finishing the stitching to stop the bleeding, Luke glanced over at the lord. The young man was observing the situation with a pale face.
“The immediate treatment is complete. However, the wounds are quite deep… .”
“… you cannot guarantee her life or death.”
The lord spoke in a low, murky tone as he looked down at his hands. The man who had been holding the patient moments before was drenched in blood, from his hands to his clothes.
Silence fell. Luke realized that the young lord was as terrified as the stillness around them.
It was a rare occurrence, but Luke, who had watched him since childhood, could tell.
The lord’s pale face quivered as his lips moved.
“Since the Glasyr is here, first to the main estate… No, rather, I…”
The man’s gaze shifted from his own blood-soaked body to the woman on the bed.
Seeing the lord looking at his wife with trembling eyes, Luke shouted.
“Your Excellency! Pull yourself together!”
The lord suddenly lifted his head as if waking from a hallucination.
When the man’s bright blue eyes turned toward him, Luke instinctively held his breath. The pupil of the person staring directly at him was dilated more than usual.
It was hard to believe that this was the same man who had been stammering just moments ago as he asked clearly.
“She lost too much blood, didn’t she?”
I’ve never been injured like that.
Muttering, the lord turned away. Luke called out from behind the young lord as he walked toward the exit of the tent.
“Where are you going?”
The lord, already outside the tent, answered without looking back.
“Just for a day, even just a single day, let her hold on until I return.”
A day was enough time to ride back to the main estate without rest.
Realizing that the young man intended to go and cut down the Glasyr, a relic of Raslet, Luke hurriedly followed him.
However, the lord had already vanished from his sight.
☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓 ☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓
As he rode along the snow-covered path, Sioden realized that Iella must have traveled this way as well.
Since it was the fastest route, the Raslet family members who had sold her would have chosen this path too.
On the road where no traces of the carriage his wife had ridden remained, Sioden pondered the feelings she must have experienced.
Was she very cold?
Was she scared?
She must have cried for sure.
Iella cried easily. Knowing that, Sioden had never wiped away her tears even once.
There were countless reasons to justify his actions.
Iella was the daughter of an enemy family. Everything was just an act.
It was a scheme to soften his heart and swallow everything about Raslet.
“Why are you marrying, Miss?”
He had already heard her answer.
“Because my father needs it.”
Yet he could not allow himself to be deceived by her.
Sioden knew that if he wiped away the woman’s wet eyes even once, he would soon want to do much more.
He would give her his attention, his heart, his body, and eventually everything he needed to protect.
However, even if every man in the world did that for Iella, he could not.
He had something to protect.
“No matter what happens, protect the family.”
Evelyn, the late duchess and his biological mother, had said that until just before her death.
Since her funeral sixteen years ago, Sioden had run only toward that goal.
Family, territory, duty, and responsibility.
Excluding his own desires and making choices for the common good was not easy.
He had to live for the family, which often left him with nothing but misery.
He could not allow a lifetime of hard work to be brought down by just one woman.
Even if that woman easily pried open his heart with a single smile or a few words, that fact did not change.
He was someone who should not live according to his heart’s desires.
Even so, he should not have said that.
“There’s no need to write letters anymore. Unless you’re dying, I won’t come to meet you.”
Iella would never forget that moment for the rest of her life.
No, even if she were to forget, he would remember.
Had he not said those words, Iella might have sent a letter when she was forced into a lottery. She might have informed him of the circumstances to save herself.
If that had happened, she would not have been set upon the walls or whipped.
He would never hand Iella over to anyone.
She was a woman he couldn’t even bring himself to look at, let alone hate.
While he emptied the castle to strike her father, Sioden secretly hoped that once Capren Rowen was gone, his wife would no longer cause any problems.
Even if Iella tried to sell out everything about Raslet, she would not be able to stir up trouble without a family to cooperate with.
And if no more problems arose, he would not have to try to hate her.
If Iella caused no more incidents in the future, Sioden could pretend not to see the things she had done before.
Wasn’t that a conscience that had never been right from the start?
He could endure that much, knowing he could keep the woman he desired by his side.
As he pretended to be ordinary, Iella would eventually realize that it was better for her to have him than to give him away to someone else.
It was only after the rebellion that he realized how benevolent that thought was.
The rebellion was inevitable.
The relationship between the Litherin Empire and Raslet had been strained since the previous generation.
Duke Lerox, the former duke, had married Evelyn, who was the betrothed of the current emperor when he was still the crown prince.
Beginning as a seemingly epic love story, Lerox ended his marriage in adultery.
Not long after their only child was born, Evelyn witnessed the new Glasyr growing in the family forest.
It was a tree growing right next to her son’s tree, which had already sprouted for quite some time.
Evelyn chopped it down with an axe, ensuring it would never grow again. She then despised her husband until her death.
Thus, what Lerox initiated was closer to a farcical comedy than a fateful love, but for the emperor, who had his fiancée taken away, it was no laughing matter.
The emperor remembered the betrayal that had occurred before his ascension even after he took the throne.
With that, the relationship between Litherin and Raslet completely deteriorated, and with Rowen joining in, a structure of opposition between the North and South was born.
The conflict continued even after Lerox’s death.
When Sioden went down to the imperial capital due to the title he inherited after his father’s death, he realized that the emperor had no intention of improving relations.
As soon as the emperor entered the protected audience chamber of the imperial palace, he spoke.
“You truly resemble your father. If I am to trust you, I will need clear proof of your loyalty.”
At that moment, Sioden stood on the red carpet, preparing to bow according to etiquette.
The emperor looked down at him with eyes that appeared slightly cloudy with a hint of white. A middle-aged man with silver hair and golden eyes stood beside the throne. It was Capren Rowen.
“What is typically used as evidence in such cases?”
Capren Rowen cast his gaze downward. Sioden did not avert his eyes from the man’s golden ones.
Capren, with a serpent-like gaze, slowly scanned him and said,
“Receive the oath of loyalty according to etiquette.”
“……”
“However, the ordinary oath has already been proven ineffective by the previous Duke of Raslet, so it seems a new method of oath is necessary.”
“Is there a proper method?”
In response to the question, Capren adopted the face of a true loyalist.
With a sincere expression, as if he were speaking plainly, he suggested,
“How about kneeling and bowing your head?”
